Jesus and wild animals

When Mark’s Gospel opens, Mark highlights the ministry of John the Baptist (1:2–8). But then Mark zeros in on the baptism (1:9–11) and temptation of Jesus (1:12–13) since those things preceded Jesus’s public ministry (1:14–15).

The language of Jesus’s temptations fascinates me because Mark mentions the presence of wild animals, and Mark is the only Gospel writer who does this.

12 The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13 And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.

Why would the presence of “wild animals” be worth mentioning? First of all, the location of the wilderness explains the presence of wild animals. The wilderness was understood as a place for wild animals. The opening verses of Mark’s Gospel introduced the “wilderness” idea (1:3, quoting from Isa. 40). John the Baptist was baptizing “in the wilderness” (1:4). Now in 1:12, we read that the Spirit drove Jesus out into “the wilderness.”

Second, the Old Testament prophets sometimes spoke of wild animals when their oracles portrayed a desolate or cursed setting. In Isaiah 13, the warning for Babylon’s headquarters was that “Wild animals will lie down there, and their houses will be full of howling creatures” (Isa. 13:21).

Third, these Old Testament prophets anticipated a day when the wilderness setting—marked by wild animals—would be transformed by blessing and flourishing. The righteousness and kingdom of the Son of David would bring about a different set of conditions in God’s creation, a set of conditions tantamount to new creation, where the unrivalled dominion of the Messiah covered creation as the waters covered the sea.

For example, in Isaiah 11, the “shoot from the stump of Jesse” would come (11:1), and this shoot, or branch, is the Messiah from David’s line. Later in Isaiah 11, we read: “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together, and a little child shall lead them” (Isa. 11:6). Part of the prophecies in Isaiah 35 are these: “The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; … in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes” (Isa. 35:1, 7).

These are, but a few excerpts from Isaiah, and many more examples could be given from the Old Testament prophets to make the same point: the power and presence of God would come to the wilderness, bringing renewal and life, overcoming threat and curse. And who would accomplish this state of affairs? The Messiah—the Lord Jesus.

Fourth, pairing animals with a scene of temptation reminds us of Adam in Eden. In Genesis 2, Adam is with the animals. He gave names to the livestock and birds and to every beast of the field (Gen. 2:20). The creation mandate included the language to “have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (1:29).

In Mark 1:12–13, we see the Last Adam, the one who has come to exercise dominion. The presence of “wild animals” is a reminder of the disorder that sin has brought to creation. This setting is an abode of the evil one. Just as Satan entered Eden in Genesis 3, he came to the wilderness in Mark 1:12 to tempt Jesus.

Jesus is among the beasts and the Ancient Serpent himself. But the wilderness will not dominate the Son of David. Jesus is the Last Adam, and he enters the wilderness with the power to subdue and renew.

In Isaiah 43, the Lord says, “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild beasts will honour me” (Isa. 43:19–20).

In Mark 1:12–13, behold the wild beasts. And behold the One whom they shall honour.

AUTHOR Matt Chase